TOWNSEND -- When Michael Niemi first set foot on the track surface in the eighth grade, he knew that he had found his top sport.

After a dominant showing in middle school track, Niemi came into North Middlesex Regional High School with a boatload of confidence. His lanky, 6-foot-2 frame is a near-perfect fit for his main event, the 110-meter hurdles.

"There's a saying, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard,'" North Middlesex track and field head coach Suzanne Williams said. "He gets that and he knows to compete head-to-head with the talented athletes in our league and in the state he has to put it all together, and that's what he does."

In the Patriots' first meet of the regular season at Fitchburg, the senior's time of 15.20 shattered the school record of 15.30 seconds set by Gary Lorden in 1987.

On Friday, Niemi was even faster, resetting the school record at 14.8 seconds in a 76-68 win over Wachusett Regional.

Niemi's goal when he arrived at the high school as a freshman was to break Lorden's record, but he was not sure if that goal would be attainable after he injured his knee in the last meet of his junior season at Shrewsbury.

Luckily for Niemi, the injury did not require surgery.

"When I started track in eighth grade the gym teacher made me do hurdles because of my height," Niemi said. "It seemed to be a good fit for me. I never lost a meet while I was in middle school.

"When I came into the high school, I decided to join track and do the hurdles.

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I kept on winning. Somehow what I was doing running-wise seemed to fit perfectly for the hurdles. I started doing a lot of box jumps and I tore my MCL. I was racing the 400-meter hurdles at the end of my sophomore year at Shrewsbury when it happened. I thought that was going to be it; I didn't think I would be able to come back."

Niemi's mother and grandparents were at the Fitchburg race when he broke the school record for the first time, and they were ecstatic to see the young man's goal come to fruition.

"Oh, my mom was the happiest I've ever seen her," Niemi said. "She has been tracking me and going to every single one of my meets. She is always there at the finish line taking pictures and waiting for me. My grandparents have recently started coming to every meet because I was so close to breaking the record. They were there to watch me break it. It is definitely one of the biggest accomplishments of my life so far."

Niemi has verbally committed to UMass Amherst with a track and field scholarship. The Minutemen compete in the Atlantic-10 Conference and sought out the North Middlesex senior for his ability in the 110-meter hurdles. Niemi plans to major in biology and pre-med; he wants to be an orthopedic surgeon.

"UMass is a really good fit for me because they are really close to UMass Medical School," he said. "I have always wanted to be a doctor, ever since I was 6, but I never knew what kind. Once I got into high school, I realized my love for sports. I thought that being an orthopedic surgeon would allow me to work with sports injuries and young athletes every day."

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